Schaft Inc.

Google Inc.

X Development LLC

Koichi Nishiwaki

Nobuyuki Ito

Junichi Urata

Satoshi Kagami

An example method includes determining a plurality of candidate support regions for a support member of a robotic device. The method also includes determining a support region score (SRS) for each candidate support region, wherein the SRS for a given candidate support region depends on a surface geometry of the given candidate support region. The method additionally includes determining an adjacent relation scores (ARS) for each candidate support region, wherein the ARS for a particular candidate support region is based at least on a plurality of SRSs of a plurality of support regions surrounding the particular candidate support region. Based on the determined SRSs and the determined ARSs, the method further includes selecting at least one support region from the plurality of candidate support regions and providing instructions for the robotic device to place the support member on the at least one selected support region.

Terrain Evaluation for robot locomotion

A robotic system may include an incremental encoder coupled to a joint of the system. The robotic system may include a memory configured to store representations of angular positions of the joint. The robotic system may include a motor coupled to the joint, where rotation of the joint while the motor is powered off (i) causes rotation of the motor such that electric power is generated, and (ii) updates the angular position of the joint. The robotic system may use the electric power to power on the incremental encoder and the memory while the robotic system is powered off. One or more processors may obtain, when the robotic system powers on after being powered off, the updated angular position of the joint from the memory, where the incremental encoder provides the updated angular position to the memory while the robotic system is powered off.

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Tokyo, Japan

Koichi Nishiwaki